Many computer-related applications allow the ability to perform keyword searches for information located on a data store or data stores. Applications such as email programs, word-processing programs, and Internet browsers offer various search capabilities. In relation to browsers, with the wealth of information that may be found on the Internet, various search engines are utilized for keyword searching of the Internet for content specific to the keywords which are inputted into the search engine. A typical search engine generates a set of search results based on the occurrence of the keywords in web pages or meta-tags within web pages.
In addition, desktop applications, such as email programs, allow similar searches to be performed using keywords to generate a list of files including the keyword. For example, an e-mail program may allow searching of an inbox for a sender's e-mail address, a recipient's e-mail address, or keywords occurring in subject lines. Results having only those parameters defined in the keyword search are displayed.
These types of keyword searches do not display additional information that may be relevant to the search. With an Internet browser keyword search, if the keywords are non-specific or wrong, irrelevant search results may be returned. For example, if a search is performed for an illness originating in a hospital, the keywords “illness originating in a hospital” might be used. Results referring to various illnesses and “originating hospitals” might be returned. However, the keyword search was intended to find results pertaining to nosocomial illnesses, or secondary disorders associated with being treated in a hospital, such as staph infections, but unrelated to a patient's primary condition, which may be a broken arm. Thus, the initial search did not provide useful results. In another example, a search for emails sent from a particular individual in an email program may return the emails set from the individual, but no further information, such as the individual's company information, and suggested additional actions and searches are returned.
Current search technologies are, in general, inefficient and ineffective. There is a need in the art to provide enhanced searching capabilities when searching local or network data stores. An enhancement of searching capabilities would greatly increase the efficiency and effectiveness of searching, while suggesting additional action which may be beneficial to the original search.